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From: riggsby@h-sc1.UUCP (andrew riggsby)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Proof by citation
Message-ID: <970@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 19:04:12 EST
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.970
Posted: Tue Mar  4 19:04:12 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 08:27:22 EST
References: <235@pttesac.UUCP> <33100034@ISM780.UUCP> <658@frog.UUCP> <11949@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <135@spar.UUCP> <691@usl.UUCP> <6808@borin5 Mar 86 00:04:12 GMT
Reply-To: riggsby@h-sc1.UUCP (andrew riggsby)
Distribution: net
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 43

In article <6808@boring.UUCP> steven@mcvax.UUCP (Steven Pemberton) writes:
>Here we go again. Last June I posted an article quoting the Oxford English
>Dictionary, and tens of worthy authors through the ages from the 1300's to
>the present day, who have used 'they', 'them', 'theirs', etc as SINGULAR
>gender-unspecific words. It is CORRECT English. It was only later
>grammarians who tried to enforce the rule that they are plural words, and
>force us to use 'he', etc. Luckily, most people have not followed their
>dictates.
>
>Illiterate? Shakespeare was just one of the many to use the form. Let
>history be the judge.
>
>Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@mcvax.uucp
>
>--------------------------------------------------------
>
>Here are the quotes from the OED again, for the doubters:
>[Here follow 113 lines of citations.]
    There is, I think, a flaw in the way this point is argued here.  In several
years of Latin and Greek prose composition I have observed two problems, which Ithink are relevant here, with using such citations to support various usages.  
The first is that even if a given word is acceptable among the poets (for ins-
tance, Shakespeare), it may not be so in prose.  E'en and e'er (for even and
ever) are such words as are many concrete verbs used in metaphorical senses.
Similarly, some constructions may be allowed in poetry but not in prose  (This
is generally not so much of a problem in English, but it does happen.)  The 
second problem is that, of course, languages vary over time.  Note that in 
addition to supporting Mr. Pemberton's position on the he/she/they issue, the
quotations he cites also contain the forms "persone","twayne","forsaketh",
"fell a laughing", and "Iche mon in thayre degre."  These were all well and
good in their time (the quotations range from the fourteenth century to
1898, only one is from the last 100 years), but I would question their impor-
tance to the question at hand.  It might be argued that since the OED was
published early in this century, it is necessariy restricted to the 1800's and
before.  This is true, but I think that it merely shows that not the OED, but
a more modern work, say Strunk and White's _Elements of Style_, should be con-
sulted.  A work such a Strunk and White's offers the additional advantage that
it is not a general historical work (like the OED), but a guide to (proper?)
prose.  I do not mean to argue that Mr. Pemberton is wrong about this partic-
ular problem, but I do question his reasoning in this article.

                                   Andrew Riggsby
                                  riggsby@harvunxu